Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

Sheep image via Shutterstock

‘Big cat’ suspected in spate of sheep killings

Sheep in local farms were discovered dead, having been killed violently, with others found bloodied and injured.

POLICE IN DOWN are investigating a number of recent attacks on sheep as well as some so-called ‘big cat’ sightings in the county.

Over recent weeks, a number of farmers in the Hill Road, Ballynahinch Road and Mullaghdrin Road areas are understood to have found sheep killed in what appeared to be violent attacks.

Some other landowners reported sheep missing and others bloodied and injured.

Local residents have claimed to have spotted a ‘big cat’ in the same general area and the PSNI said today that local officers are making enquiries.

“While we would stress that there has been no confirmation of the presence of any ‘big cat’ in the area, we would ask that anyone who has lost sheep or other livestock in similar fashion recently, or anyone who sees an animal which they believe to be dangerous to contact police,” they said.

However they warned that under no circumstances should any wild or undomesticated animal be approached.

Local police can be contacted on 0845 600 8000.

Read: Up to 50 sheep killed by dogs in Co Roscommon>

Read: Sheep farmers call for microchipping of dogs following ‘distressing attacks’>

Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.

Close
48 Comments
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute James Mckernan
    Favourite James Mckernan
    Report
    Sep 2nd 2013, 4:06 PM

    They say it’s as big as four cats and it’s got a retractable leg so’s it can leap up at you better.

    310
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute John
    Favourite John
    Report
    Sep 2nd 2013, 4:15 PM

    The real villain in this piece has yet to be revealed.

    FARGO BOYLE !!

    178
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute John Kinsella
    Favourite John Kinsella
    Report
    Sep 2nd 2013, 4:23 PM

    Fukkin hell

    185
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Helen Duggan
    Favourite Helen Duggan
    Report
    Sep 2nd 2013, 7:12 PM

    @ John Kinsella – comment of the year!

    6
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Jimmy White
    Favourite Jimmy White
    Report
    Sep 2nd 2013, 4:11 PM

    The beast … I hear it is a fierce creature… With a strange fear of stamps… And three arses !!!!!

    154
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Dave Dson
    Favourite Dave Dson
    Report
    Sep 2nd 2013, 4:11 PM

    Definitely a case for Ted & Dougal.

    112
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Moe Sizlack
    Favourite Moe Sizlack
    Report
    Sep 2nd 2013, 4:39 PM

    If I was a sheep. I’d be watching my back right now.

    75
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Matt Connolly
    Favourite Matt Connolly
    Report
    Sep 2nd 2013, 8:55 PM

    Why? Do you live in wales?

    5
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Moe Sizlack
    Favourite Moe Sizlack
    Report
    Sep 2nd 2013, 8:58 PM

    What’s Wales got to do with anything.

    4
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Scarr
    Favourite Scarr
    Report
    Sep 2nd 2013, 4:48 PM

    To the people of Down. Y’all know me. Know how I earn a livin’. I’ll catch this cat for you, but it ain’t gonna be easy. Bad cat. Not like going down the pond chasin’ bluegills and tommycods. This cat, swallow you whole. Little shakin’, little tenderizin’, an’ down you go. And we gotta do it quick, that’ll bring back your tourists, put all your businesses on a payin’ basis. But it’s not gonna be pleasant. I value my neck a lot more than three thousand bucks, chief. I’ll find him for three, but I’ll catch him, and kill him, for ten. But you’ve gotta make up your minds. If you want to stay alive, then ante up. If you want to play it cheap, be on welfare the whole winter. I don’t want no volunteers, I don’t want no mates, there’s just too many captains on this island. 10,000 for me by myself. For that you get the head, the tail, the whole damn thing.

    73
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute John Hayes
    Favourite John Hayes
    Report
    Sep 2nd 2013, 5:14 PM

    We’re gonna need a bigger boat. Show me the way to go home I’m tired and I wanna go to bed

    29
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Annette Temple
    Favourite Annette Temple
    Report
    Sep 2nd 2013, 6:40 PM

    You’ve too much time on yer hands! Love it. :)

    7
    See 1 more reply ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Dave Sherman
    Favourite Dave Sherman
    Report
    Sep 2nd 2013, 7:06 PM

    I had a little drink about an hour ago…

    7
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute chris o connor jnr
    Favourite chris o connor jnr
    Report
    Sep 2nd 2013, 4:38 PM

    Apparently it’s got magnets on its tail and he lights up at night and has 4 ears , I think the sheep need some sheep tea mrs Doyle

    52
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Rob O'Brien
    Favourite Rob O'Brien
    Report
    Sep 2nd 2013, 4:23 PM

    It’s either Mary Harney or the Healy-rae’s!

    46
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Michael Donnelly
    Favourite Michael Donnelly
    Report
    Sep 2nd 2013, 4:35 PM

    It has claws as big as cups.

    45
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Michael cunnane
    Favourite Michael cunnane
    Report
    Sep 2nd 2013, 5:10 PM

    It’s not a cat. It’s a spider baby

    37
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ken McDermott
    Favourite Ken McDermott
    Report
    Sep 2nd 2013, 4:59 PM

    El Chupracabra!

    28
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Mark Sweetman
    Favourite Mark Sweetman
    Report
    Sep 2nd 2013, 5:55 PM

    When I was little, we found a sheep. It looked like – like, butchered. The old woman in the village crossed themselves… and whispered crazy things, strange things. “El Diablo cazador de ovejas.” Only in the hottest years this happens. And this year, it grows hot. We begin finding our sheep. We found them sometimes without their skins… and sometimes much, much worse. “El cazador trofeo de los ovejas” means the demon who makes trophies of sheep.

    24
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Annette Temple
    Favourite Annette Temple
    Report
    Sep 2nd 2013, 6:42 PM

    Tis the Celtic tiger fallen on hard times like the rest if us.

    23
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Steven Clancy
    Favourite Steven Clancy
    Report
    Sep 2nd 2013, 5:35 PM

    Its the missing quinn

    22
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute John O'Neill
    Favourite John O'Neill
    Report
    Sep 2nd 2013, 9:43 PM

    The comments were brilliant until that one…

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute john cleary
    Favourite john cleary
    Report
    Sep 2nd 2013, 4:07 PM

    Salvatore “Big Pussy” Bonpensiero, not to be confused with “Little Pussy” Malanga.

    20
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute CD
    Favourite CD
    Report
    Sep 2nd 2013, 4:35 PM

    Kills men by the hundreds, and if he were here he’d consume the English with fireballs from his eyes and bolts of lightning from his ass.

    52
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute CD
    Favourite CD
    Report
    Sep 2nd 2013, 4:36 PM

    Wait I’ve got my movie plots confused

    24
    See 1 more reply ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Niall
    Favourite Niall
    Report
    Sep 2nd 2013, 6:17 PM

    Unite the clans!

    6
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Dav mcgldrick
    Favourite Dav mcgldrick
    Report
    Sep 2nd 2013, 4:11 PM

    Tiger country.

    17
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Joanna Lynch
    Favourite Joanna Lynch
    Report
    Sep 2nd 2013, 6:22 PM

    Maybe not a tiger . . . . but I know of a woman here who had a leopard and it was stolen a couple of years ago ? !

    5
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Manus O Lorcain
    Favourite Manus O Lorcain
    Report
    Sep 2nd 2013, 5:34 PM

    Oooooh I wouldn’t want to be a sheep out on them moors tonight…

    14
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Sexy Taoiseach
    Favourite Sexy Taoiseach
    Report
    Sep 2nd 2013, 4:54 PM

    Sheep Shaggers gone savage

    13
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute John F
    Favourite John F
    Report
    Sep 2nd 2013, 4:52 PM

    Generic Father Ted reference

    10
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute bob®
    Favourite bob®
    Report
    Sep 2nd 2013, 7:33 PM

    Tis only a small white rabbit, what’s fighting about that….

    8
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Matt Connolly
    Favourite Matt Connolly
    Report
    Sep 2nd 2013, 8:57 PM

    One holy handgrenade coming right up. Nih!

    3
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute bob®
    Favourite bob®
    Report
    Sep 3rd 2013, 12:26 AM

    On 3

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Chopstix
    Favourite Chopstix
    Report
    Sep 2nd 2013, 5:02 PM

    It’s our very own Chupababra

    8
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Simon Jester
    Favourite Simon Jester
    Report
    Sep 2nd 2013, 9:28 PM

    Hooper: You were in Co Down??
    Brody: What happened?

    Quint: NAMA lawyers slammed two repossession orders into our side, Chief. We was comin’ back from the island of Tinian to Leyte… just delivered the Cows. . Eleven hundred sheepwent into the field. The tractor got stuck in 12 minutes. Didn’t see the first Big cat or about a half an hour. Tiger. 13-footer. You know how you know that when you’re in the bog, Chief? You tell by looking from the front paws to the tail. What we didn’t know, was our bomb mission had been so secret, no distress signal had been sent. They didn’t even list us overdue for a week. Very first light, Chief, cats come cruisin’, so we formed ourselves into tight groups. You know, it was kinda like old squares in the battle like you see in the calendar named “The Battle of Waterloo” and the idea was: Big cat comes to the nearest man, that man he starts poundin’ and hollerin’ and screamin’ and sometimes the cat will go away… but sometimes he wouldn’t go away. Sometimes that cat he looks right into ya. Right into your eyes. And, you know, the thing about a cat… he’s got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll’s eyes. When he comes at ya, doesn’t seem to be living… until he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white and then… ah then you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin’. The bog turns red, and despite all the poundin’ and the hollerin’, they all come in and they… rip you to pieces. You know by the end of that first dawn, lost a hundred d sheep. I don’t know how many Cats, maybe a thousand. I know how many men, they averaged six an hour. On Thursday morning, Chief, I bumped into a friend of mine, Herbie Robinson from Cullyhanna. GAA player. Cheif mucker outer I thought he was asleep. I reached over to wake him up. He bobbed up, down in the bog water just like a kinda top. Upended. Well, he’d been bitten in half below the waist. Noon, the fifth day, Mr. Hooper, a John Deere saw us. He swung in low and he saw us… he was a young fella, a lot younger than Mr. Hooper. Anyway, he saw us and he come in low and three hours later a big fat Massycomes down and starts to pull us out. You know that was the time I was most frightened… waitin’ for my turn. I’ll never put on a pair of wellies again. So, eleven hundred sheep went in the field; 316 sheep come out and the cats took the rest, June the 29th, 2013. Anyway, we delivered the cattle.

    7
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute John O'Neill
    Favourite John O'Neill
    Report
    Sep 2nd 2013, 9:44 PM

    The bog turns red! I’m still laughing…

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Kizzi Yeates
    Favourite Kizzi Yeates
    Report
    Sep 2nd 2013, 4:57 PM

    Baaaad Doggies

    5
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Peter Richardson
    Favourite Peter Richardson
    Report
    Sep 2nd 2013, 7:41 PM

    Yup, pretty sure it’s a sabre toothed tiger. They are often seen in County Down. They can be quite vicious.

    5
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Simon Jester
    Favourite Simon Jester
    Report
    Sep 2nd 2013, 4:25 PM

    Bit late for silly season media stories now.

    4
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute William Grogan
    Favourite William Grogan
    Report
    Sep 2nd 2013, 6:15 PM

    These very common “big cat” stories are always nonsense. What is it with journalists? They don’t seem to have a skeptical bone in their bodies.

    3
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Kizzi Yeates
    Favourite Kizzi Yeates
    Report
    Sep 2nd 2013, 6:00 PM

    Purrfect

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Luke Daly
    Favourite Luke Daly
    Report
    Sep 2nd 2013, 11:02 PM

    Fargo Boyle! …….F*#king Hell.

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Kieran Monaghan
    Favourite Kieran Monaghan
    Report
    Sep 2nd 2013, 11:24 PM

    Simon Jester, Seamus Heaney would be proud of you.

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Kevin Thornton
    Favourite Kevin Thornton
    Report
    Sep 3rd 2013, 9:23 AM

    probily a werewolf lots full moons out lately or fenton that dog that never came back

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Kizzi Yeates
    Favourite Kizzi Yeates
    Report
    Sep 2nd 2013, 7:10 PM

    I thought I saw Putty Cat a creepin up on sheep …….,,

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Vincent Groves
    Favourite Vincent Groves
    Report
    Sep 2nd 2013, 6:41 PM

    ‘were been’?

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute caesar342
    Favourite caesar342
    Report
    Sep 2nd 2013, 10:00 PM

    Well i WAS going to Ireland to be a sheep farmer but apparently someone pissed my mom off and left her there. Lol

    1
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.
JournalTv
News in 60 seconds